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Climate change impacts and vegetation response on the island of Madagascar

Climate change impacts and vegetation response on the island of Madagascar
Climate change impacts and vegetation response on the island of Madagascar
The island of Madagascar has been labelled the world's number one conservation 'hot spot' because of increasing anthropogenic degradation of its natural habitats, which support a high level of species endemism. However, climatic phenomena may also have a significant impact upon the island's flora and fauna. An analysis of 18 years of monthly satellite images from the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) have demonstrated that there is a dynamic pattern in Madagascar's vegetative cover both annually and seasonally throughout 1982-1999. Over interannual time-scales, we show that this vegetation response, calculated using the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), has a strong negative correlation with the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO), which can be attributable to drought events and associated wildfires. Global climate change is predicted to increase the frequency of the ENSO phenomenon, resulting in further decline of Madagascar's natural environment.
Madagascar, vegetation change, Enso (El Niño Southern Oscillation), Ndvi (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index)
1364-503X
55-59
Ingram, J. Carter
774a18d9-903a-4a83-b967-dd407220129a
Dawson, Terence P.
0c9227ce-1d62-47b5-9571-a8a1864321af
Ingram, J. Carter
774a18d9-903a-4a83-b967-dd407220129a
Dawson, Terence P.
0c9227ce-1d62-47b5-9571-a8a1864321af

Ingram, J. Carter and Dawson, Terence P. (2005) Climate change impacts and vegetation response on the island of Madagascar. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, 363 (1826), 55-59. (doi:10.1098/rsta.2004.1476).

Record type: Article

Abstract

The island of Madagascar has been labelled the world's number one conservation 'hot spot' because of increasing anthropogenic degradation of its natural habitats, which support a high level of species endemism. However, climatic phenomena may also have a significant impact upon the island's flora and fauna. An analysis of 18 years of monthly satellite images from the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) have demonstrated that there is a dynamic pattern in Madagascar's vegetative cover both annually and seasonally throughout 1982-1999. Over interannual time-scales, we show that this vegetation response, calculated using the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), has a strong negative correlation with the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO), which can be attributable to drought events and associated wildfires. Global climate change is predicted to increase the frequency of the ENSO phenomenon, resulting in further decline of Madagascar's natural environment.

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More information

Published date: 15 January 2005
Keywords: Madagascar, vegetation change, Enso (El Niño Southern Oscillation), Ndvi (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index)
Organisations: Remote Sensing & Spatial Analysis

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 58511
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/58511
ISSN: 1364-503X
PURE UUID: b22128cc-255c-401f-afbc-4c916182b2e0

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Date deposited: 14 Aug 2008
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 11:11

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Contributors

Author: J. Carter Ingram
Author: Terence P. Dawson

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